Ratholing chips.

I was ratholing chips the other day when I thought the dealer wasn't looking and she finally said "I can color up those so they don't take up as much room in your pocket." :yikes: I said to her "You noticed that?" She said "We see everything."

And I thought I was being so slick.

Slick or not, that wasn't a very good response. It only makes your motives for pocketing them more suspicious.

A better retort would have been, "sure you can once I'm ready to leave" and then only give back some of them to color up.

Many times I'll openly pocket greenies just so that I don't have a large stack in front of me. Pull them back out when needed, or not......

I thought it was just a funny story.

Do it slowly over time, and only green chips. Get used to "palming" them off the table, when the dealer isn't looking.

If you learn to "palm a chip" from a stack, you can rat hole few, but most pits watch the greens/blacks closely. A gambler normally does not hide his winnings. Keep your sessions short and sweet. Besides you are not going to fool the eye if they review your play. Hit and run.

Sounds like good advice to me.:joker:

It's very important to learn to palm them. If someone sees you doing it, or knows you have chips in your pocket, you're not doing it right.

perhaps that wasn't the best of responses, but it sure was hilarious! :laugh::laugh::whip:

Once the Pit / The Eye catches on that you are ratholing chips they will assign the value of missing chips from your table to you.

Think about it.

Ah, but I've seen many a ploppy pocket greenies openly as soon as they get them. And several that do it just so they can go cash them out to re-buy into the table to make it look like they've been losing for better comps, or so they think.

The key is to get some of them off the table without the pit knowing where they went. I frequently "openly" pocket any green I have when I take a bathroom break (eg: count's terrible). Most return to the table when I return, but some have mysteriously disappeared. I find that to be a very easy way to pocket them without having to do it on the sly. Although I still do it the old-fashioned way if need be.

I've been asked before why I do it and I just say that I've had chips stolen off the table before and it's not happening again.

I see like 5-10 ploppies per night openly rathole chips... They do it when on a winning streak so that they know not to spend it when they start losing. There's nothing suspicious about ratholing, but there is when you try to conceal it. This is not to say that you can't "openly" rathole your chips when the PC isn't around...

Showing a loss instead of a small win can be extremely valuable. Eating for free or getting other valuable comps means fewer expenses which means a better return on your trip.

Honestly the best way to do this is to take your bigger chips with you when you hit the restroom and don't put all of them back.

I've always found it pretty natural and expected to take high-value chips off the table for safekeeping. Having a big pile of chips sitting in front of you is pretty conspicuous, and attracts all the wrong kinds of attention. Chip hustlers are a real issue.

While it can be made obvious that you are taking chips off the table, they need not know exactly how many. They can also be easily "misled".

I want to go on the record that I think ANY ratholing should be done secretly, and should not be noticed by anyone, especially not a casino employee. If the overhead camera can even see your move, you're not doing it right. The only way I'd get caught ratholing is by a zoomed-in pan and sweep camera.

The chip(s) should be invisible to anyone looking. Learn to palm them.

Check your PM.

The best strategy to do this is to keep changing green chips to black chips, black chips to purple chips, so your hand could hold most of your chips except a few green chips on the table for the next few hands, assuming you are winning. Then casino has no idea how many chips you have unless the pit boss watch you from beginning.

If the dealer ask you to color you up when you stand up and ready to leave, you just tell him "You already did!"

This is inspired by a true story. I see this African American do this all the time in my local casino. (I only saw once a dealer told him that he will color him up only when he is ready to leave. Of course, he left the rude dealer's table right away.)

Depending on where you play, the pit is going to know how many black and purples etc are in the tray and could fairly or unfairly account them to you when he is checking they tray after you have left.